Tyler Kobick is an architect (WV, VT, CA) and general contractor with a focus in affordable housing, public-interest design, custom fabrication, and ecological design methods. He is principal of a 18-person design and build studio and construction firm, Design Draw Build, in Oakland, California, with a small satellite office on the East Coast as well. With a pre-fab shop in East Oakland and a design office on the Berkeley/Oakland border, Design Draw Build designs and builds a mix of commercial and residential projects often for non-profit clients and interactive public spaces . Current clients include Patch Adams’ Gesundheit Institute (Pocahontas County, WV), EBALDC (Oakland, CA), The University of Vermont (Burlington, VT), Eli’s Mile High Club (Oakland, CA), Brooklyn Preserve Church (Oakland CA), and the UC Theater (Berkeley, CA). Tyler holds two degrees in architecture, a B.S Arch from the University of Cincinnati, and a March from Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Canada.

After years of moving with his business partner and others to design and build site-specific projects in Northern California, Illinois, West Virginia and Vermont for the past 5 years, Tyler relocated to the Bay area in 2013.  Tyler has also been one of the lead designers for temporary festival structures at Bonnaroo music festival, Outside Lands, and for Superfly Productions over the past 5 years.
From 2004-2010, Tyler worked in the Mad River Valley of central Vermont on custom residential and commercial projects under the architect Dave Sellers, often splitting his time between the office and job-site. Many of Tyler’s design-build influences originated from this area of Vermont, where Yestermorrow Design Build School, Jersey Devil Architecture, John Connell, and Peter Gluck and Partners all started out. From 2005-2008, Tyler traveled extensively in the mountainous region of south-east El Salvador building rural medical clinics and developing a model school for land-place based education. He developed theories on the revitalization and preservation of small urban centers, sustainable locally-applied building technologies, and community-activated building projects which formed the basis of his masters research, and continue to inform his teaching.
Tyler was a founder of the Amun Shea K-12 School in Perquin, El Salvador and helped found the Ecological Design Co-laboratory Studio-a sustainable design-lab and think tank at the University of Vermont. He still teaches community facilitated design-build architecture, materials and methods of construction, and design-drawing at the University of San Francisco, University of Vermont, and a few other University affiliated projects. Tyler is also a passionate local foodie, painter, rock climber, and musician.